Quantities of all the ingredients are based on personal taste.Make mounds of each individual ingredient next to one another on a platter. Just before serving, combine all the dressing ingredients and pour over all ingredients and mix together. *Lephet, Burmese fermented tea leaf is hard to find. I use good quality green tea and combine with lemon juice and fish sauce in a mortar and pestleFor a Thai inspired meal serve withpla-dook foo.In Cambodia, Papaya salad is served with salted crab.In Isan, the Northeastern region of Thailand, papaya salad is served with pla rah a pickled mudfish with an oder as fierce as durian.Here is a recipe for Som Tam Isan (papaya salad from Isan)

Papaya salad ingredients at Wat Mongkolratanaram, Berkeley’s Thai Buddhist temple, where they serve affordable, homestyle Thai food to the public every Sunday

The cuisine of Isan, in the Northeast corner of Thailand, is different from the rest of the nations cuisine because they do not use as much coconut milk. The food is extra spicey in Isan with lots of chillies and herbs. They eat a lot of stickey rice and the cuisine shares many traditions and recipes with neighboring Laos.